Re:Gender works to end gender inequity by exposing root causes and advancing research-informed action. Working with multiple sectors and disciplines, we are shaping a world that demands fairness across difference.

Reproductive Health

Reproductive health problems remain a leading cause of illness and death for women, particularly in developing countries. A leading cause of maternal death is lack of access to health services and prenatal care. Health begins with accurate and comprehensive sex education during adolescence – education that needs to continue throughout adulthood. Researchers in our network are currently working to disseminate evidence-based information and increase access to the full range of reproductive health services so that women can lead healthy and productive lives. Studies have demonstrated the advantages of comprehensive sex education compared with abstinence-only or other programs in preventing teen pregnancy, raising the age of initial sexual activity and lowering rates of sexually transmitted disease. More effort is needed to address the health needs of marginalized populations, particularly immigrant women, who are less likely to seek pre-natal and preventive screenings and care.

Although most of the governments in Latin America today are described as progressive, abortion is only legal in one country, while in five countries it is banned under all circumstances, even when the mother's life is at risk. Such laws have simply forced the practice underground, making unsafe abortions the second leading cause of maternal mortality in the region.

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There are more than four million illegal abortions a year in the region, linked to over 4,000 avoidable deaths. And in some countries, like Argentina, there are nearly as many abortions as births.

In the view of some analysts, setbacks to or the lack of progress with respect to women's right to choice are the result of a fundamentalist offensive by the Catholic Church to keep Latin America a land free of abortions - legal ones, at least.

Rita Segato sees the negotiation over women's bodies in the criminalisation of abortion as linked to the problem of gender violence in the region, which is "huge" despite the fact that the Americas has the only continent-wide treaty on violence against women.

Empowering women to take control of their own health and safety is the theory behind today's rollout of female condoms in D.C. HIV is the leading cause of death for African-American women between 24 and 39, and women in poor areas of the District are at an especially high risk.

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The female condom was introduced in 1995, but despite initial optimism, use of the product never took off. Yet the female condom remains the only way for women to initiate protection against sexually transmitted diseases. The female condom, which can be inserted several hours before intercourse, allows a woman to protect herself without having to persuade the man with whom she's sleeping to change his behavior.

The USA spends more than any other country on health care, and more on maternal health than any other type of hospital care. Despite this, women in the USA have a higher risk of dying of pregnancy-related complications than those in 40 other countries. For example, the likelihood of a woman dying in childbirth in the USA is five times greater than in Greece, four times greater than in Germany, and three times greater than in Spain.

African-American women are nearly four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women. These rates and disparities have not improved in more than 20 years.

According to a new Amnesty International report, approximately half of the pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable, the result of systemic failures, including barriers to accessing care; inadequate, neglectful or discriminatory care; and overuse of risky interventions like inducing labor and delivering via cesarean section. The report notes that black women in the U.S. are nearly four times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related causes.

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The Amnesty report spotlights numerous barriers women face in accessing care, even among those who are insured or qualify for Medicaid. Poverty is a major factor, but all women are put at risk by overuse of obstetrical intervention and barriers to access to more woman-centered, physiologic care provided by family-practice physicians and midwives.

Amnesty is calling on Obama to create an Office of Maternal Health within the Department of Health and Human Services to improve outcomes and reduce disparities, among other recommendations. The report also calls on the government to address the shortage of maternal-care providers.

Amnesty International has headlined its new study on the state of health care in America for pregnant women, "Deadly Delivery."

Here's why: hundreds of women will die from pregnancy-related complications this year. And half of those deaths are believed to be preventable. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the report.